This year’s Global Venture Capital Confidence Survey, from Deloitte and the National Venture Capital Association, has an interesting data point for the hundreds of existing and emergent social networking tools out there: Of 13 countries surveyed, venture capitalists in 11 nations had less confidence in investing in social media industries, including new media ones, than in 2012.

PandoDaily.com points out that in the U.S., the effect was actually more pronounced, with VC’s being 10% less certain about the social sector than a year ago.

Exactly why this may be true isn’t clear, but one would be foolish to rule out the influence of Facebook’s somewhat floppedIPO in early 2012–with the company only just recently returning to its launch share price. The increasing dominance of the top placeholders, like Twitter, Facebook, and associated enterprises like Instagram and Vine may also be making it harder for young startups to make a dent in the social scene. “Social media” itself as a concept is also being increasingly baked into offerings that other companies have long established.